New Homes on Horizon As Newberry Approves New Subdivision Plats

NEWBERRY ‒ The Newberry City Commission on Nov. 27 approved preliminary plats for two residential neighborhoods and a replat of a third.

The Commission approved a preliminary plat of Phase 1 of the Tanglewood Planned Development located on the south side of State Road 26/West Newberry Road, between Southwest 218^th Street and Southwest 202^nd Street. Tanglewood was approved for a maximum of 140,000 square feet of residential and 636 dwelling units. The plat includes preliminary siting of roads and 106 residential lots, stormwater management facilities, future commercial and approximately 1.5 acres for an amenity center.

Newberry Principal Planner Jean-Paul Perez said this is a four-phase project. Development of 150,000 square feet of commercial property must begin prior to approval of Phase 4.

The Final Development Plan, including additional details on neighborhood aesthetics, will accompany submittal of the construction plans and final plat but were not required for preliminary plat approval of Phase 1.

The initial phase of Tanglewood includes a portion of the potable water main line that will connect to the water tower site, which is located within Phase 2 of Tanglewood. City staff recommended the property owner work with the city manager to mutually agree upon the best route and timing of connection of the 12-inch potable water main line to the water tower site.

Magnolia Acres

Magnolia Acres Subdivision was granted Preliminary Plat approval by unanimous City Commission vote. The property, located south of southwest 15^th Avenue and east of Southwest 226^th Street, proposes a gated subdivision of 15 lots with a five-acre minimum property size on approximately 80 acres. Access is provided along the internal roads in the subdivision, which will be privately owned and maintained by the Homeowners Association.

Commissioner Mark Clark expressed concerns about conditions of the Southwest 15^th Avenue roadway, outside of the subdivision, which he said are “terrible.” Due to the low traffic count expected for that size subdivision, Perez said that the roadway would not be negatively impacted. Mayor Jordan Marlowe said that the City will be collecting transportation impact fees from the development, which could be eventually used to improve the roadway if the Commission decides to do so.

Barrington Replat

The Commission also unanimously approved a replat of Lots 8 - 11 and 23 of the Barrington plat entitled Barrington Replat. The property, located at the northwest corner of Southwest 15^th Avenue and Southwest 170^th Street, has a future land use designation of Agriculture and is located within the Agricultural (A) zoning district.

The replat of Lots 8 - 11 addresses changes in the interior access road. The lots remain relatively in the same area. Lot 11 is reduced to 1.995 acres, which is below the minimum required lot area of two acres, but there are not presumptive negative impacts to other property and persons in the immediate area.

Lot 23, approximately 29 acres, is being subdivided to create two new lots for a total of 25 lots in the subdivision. Resolution 2022-35 permits the division of Lot 23 up to two times.

Annexations

The City Commissioners approved on first reading two ordinances for voluntary annexation requests totaling 190 +/- acres. Ordinance 2023-34 was an annexation request for Whitehurst Cattle Co., owner, of 161 +/- acres of property located southwest of the intersection of Southwest 67^th Avenue and Southwest 205^th Street. Ordinance 2023-35 was an annexation request by Herbert A. Marlowe, Jr., owner, of 29 +/- acres located southeast of the intersection of Southwest 30^th Avenue and County Road 337/Southwest 282^nd Street.

Cold Storage Rezoning

The Commission also approved an application by I S Property Holdings, LLC for a small-scale amendment to the Future Land Use Plan Map of the Comprehensive Plan by changing the future land use classification from Residential Low Density to Commercial on a site consisting of approximately 0.28 +/- acres. The site is located at 98 Northwest 254^th Street and is the former location of the historic Cold Storage facility. The Commission also approved rezoning the City Hall and Cold Storage site from Residential, Single-Family (RSF-2) and Commercial, Central Business District (C-CBD) on City Hall property to Public Facilities (PF) and from Residential, Single-Family (RSF-2) to Commercial, Central Business District on the Cold Storage site located at 25440 West Newberry Road and 98 Northwest 254 Street, respectively. The site consists of 1.93 +/- acres. This request aligns the current use of the property with the appropriate and applicable zoning districts.

Public School Rezoning Initiative

In a move related to school rezoning by Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS), City Manager Mike New will be penning a letter to the school system encouraging them to set boundaries that reflect City boundaries as well as encouraging Alachua County to institute impact fees for additional schools while they are involved in redrawing school attendance zones.

Information related to the process is available at https://www.sbac.edu/rezoning. The site includes an overview of the rezoning process, maps of existing school zones and proposed school zones, demographic data and maps showing active developments in Alachua County.

“The three public schools in Newberry are overcrowded,” said City Manager Mike New. “Oak View Middle School completed a construction project in 2022 that provided additional capacity. Newberry High School is slated for new capacity in 2028. There are no current plans to increase capacity at Newberry Elementary School. Rezoning is the most effective way to address overcrowding in Newberry’s schools.”

ACPS plans for new school zones to be finalized in December of this year, which will take effect for the 2024-25 school year.

Legal Services

After weighing in on a discussion about legal service providers, the Commission opted to continue with current representation from Folds & Walker, Inc., a firm that has served as the City Attorney for more than 50 years. The FY 2023 – 24 contract amount is $95,930 with provision of separate fees for special projects that arise from time to time. The contract renews automatically each year unless either party provides notice of intent to terminate the contract, and annual fee increases are set at three percent unless otherwise negotiated.

Mayor Comments

Mayor Marlowe said that the City of High Springs earlier declined to be part of a three-city agreement for Newberry to provide regional waste water treatment services. Marlow said that in the wake of the High Springs city manager’s resignation, he said he would like to reach out to the High Springs mayor to see if there is a change in their position.

In a related matter, Marlow took exception to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published results of a July water sampling. He said that residents do not need to be concerned and the City is following up with more testing. “The EPA has done a poor job communicating with Newberry about contaminants, leaving us to find out about the test results from the website publication, instead of notifying the City directly,” said Marlowe.

The next Regular City Commission meeting is Dec. 11.

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